the sacred space inside the barrel of a wave.

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steve carter is an associate teaching pastor who now oversees the rockharbor fullerton campus. he works with a great team of staff and volunteers who are committed to helping this young community become an actual family. steve lives with his wife sarah, their son emerson and their dog fenway in fullerton, california.

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May 11, 2008

baptism sunday...

in the coming weeks, i will be filling in for rob and teaching on baptism for our community. this is always a special day in our communities eyes. we bring in the spa, cut away half the stage, have a 25 minute message and then listen to a number of stories from people who are wanting to get baptized. it's a pretty beautiful day...

but i need your help.

i'd love to share a few thoughts i have and get your feedback on it. a couple things to know, i will have this computer tablet on stage where i can draw and write out some of the below notes and they will magically appear on the screens.

i will start by simply writing out four specific points in the israelites journey from slavery to promise land. after each one, i will spend a few moments talking about it. below are the the four and in parenthesis is a hint about which direction i'm headed:

now, i often think this is has become a model for many people's faith journey. you admit your enslavement or sin, get baptized, wander for 40 years until you die and then arrive in heaven. for many this is the hope...

but what happens if you're already in the promised land?

grab a bible and look through the first few chapters of Matthew with me. remember, this gospel was written primarily for a hebrew audience and i'm coming to believe Matthew knew what he was doing.

isn't this bizzarre? have you ever noticed this? read about it anywhere? why does Matthew tell a Hebrew audience that Jesus and his family go back to egypt. what does this symbolize? then follows it up with baptism and then the 40 days (which everything Jesus is tempted by are things Israel chose not to follow or remember) and then the sermon on the mount which teaches his disciples how to bring heaven here.

it's almost like Jesus is saying it's not about a piece of land it's about a way of life. my followers, even in the midst of roman oppression will choose to live a certain kind of life that embodies the new humanity. i want to focus on the 40 days, the sermon on the mount and then wrap it up by asking what does this all mean in regards to baptism and break that down.

I think that's a pretty interesting pattern with the Exodus story and the life of Jesus. I agree with you on Matthew's intention as well.

Another thing I've found interesting is that in scripture it seems like there's always this thread of going through water to safety: the Noah story, the Exodus story, the John-the-baptist story, the Jesus story, the Paul story. We see that our story involves water.

I'm excited to hear your breakdown on what the four points mean in light of baptism!

Good thoughts, Steve. I agree with you that the Exodus imagery is intentional. You want to be careful, though that you don't jump too far into the story when you head towards the sermon on the mount. Instead, I think the promised land/arrival idea comes right after Jesus' temptation in the wilderness when Jesus begins to preach - "the kingdom of heaven has come near." Then, in speaking to those on whom "a light has dawned (4.16 - from Is. 9), he says - "you are the light of the world."

Also the 40 days/years parallel is interesting. Jesus' temptations are all paralleled in Exodus. Where Israel failed in the wilderness, Jesus remains faithful.

I emailed my thoughts to you. I am the most ignorant and simple minded one in the bunch. I didn't want to embarrass myself on your blog. But I will say this. Add Emerson to your bio... you are now a dad and that is a hug gift!

I agree that Matthew was being very intentional in the way he presented his story to his Hebrew audience. I am utterly fascinated at how many connections there are. So many layers of stuff going on there...

N. T. Wright has written some brief commentary on some of these connections. Here’s how he sees the parallels between Jesus story and the Israelites journey from slavery to the promised land...

This is very similar to what you suggested. The only difference is that Wright includes the promised land and views it as happening when Jesus announced the arrival of God’s kingdom. Maybe this is what Gary was getting at?

He also sees the beatitudes as the new covenant, echoing the covenant God gave to the people of Israel when they arrived at the border of the promised land (Deut. 28). The rest of Jesus’ sermon on the mount is, as you said, to teach his followers how to live by this new rule, demonstrating the life of heaven and bringing God's kingdom crashing down to earth.

Love your ideas, bro, and can't wait to hear the teaching. Take care...